UTEP study: Child migrant surge 3 years in the making

Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Brownsville,Texas. CPB provided media tours Wednesday of two locations in Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz., that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)

Smugglers may be exploiting the process that U.S. border law enforcement officials are required to follow in the case of undocumented child immigrants from Central America who is apprehended at the border, according to a report by the University of Texas at El Paso's National Center for Border Security and Immigration.

The report "Unaccompanied Alien Children Project" also said the surge of undocumented immigrant children from Central America was three years in the making.

In a section titled "What UTEP Found," the report said researchers were told by border security officers in South Texas that a lack of deterrence was contributing to the problem.

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Diana Washington Valdez

"Officers are certain that (unaccompanied child immigrants) are aware of the relative lack of consequences they will receive when apprehended at the U.S. border," the report said.

Smugglers know that child immigrants apprehended at the border will be reunited with relatives in the U.S. pending the disposition of their immigration hearings.

"This process appears to be exploited by illegal alien smugglers and family members in the United States who wish to reunited with separated children," the report said.

Victor Manjarrez, associate director of the National Center for Border Security and Immigration, said the Homeland Security Department was provided with a copy of the report in February, a month before it was published in its final form.

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Manjarrez, who had worked for the Border Patrol for 20 years, said border officials saw surges of Central American immigrants in the early 1990s and in 2003-2004.

"What's different today is the large number of children we're seeing from those countries," Manjarrez said. "In the early 1990s, we saw a lot of immigrants from El Salvador, who were fleeing a civil war. The surge in 2003 and 2004 was linked to the national debate in the U.S. over comprehensive immigration reform."

"The recent problem is one that has been festering for the past few years, but in increments. No one expected the significant increase in children that we've seen recently," Manjarrez said.

Manjarrez said he would not be surprised to learn that the immigrants are prompted to come due to false information that is being reported in their countries, including by radio or TV.

"It's a big business, that's why many of them traveling through Mexico without a problem," he said. "When I was with the Border Patrol in Arizona, I remember that a couple of Polish illegal immigrants we apprehended said they heard on television in Poland that if they made it to Naco, Arizona, they could enter the United States, that Naco was the gateway to America."

UTEP's researchers set out to examine why the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas had seen "a significant increase in illegal immigration over the last (three) years that has impacted Department of Homeland Security enforcement entities," the report said.

The report was funded by a grant of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate Office of University Programs.

"Within this overall increase of illegal immigration the region has also seen a substantial increase of unaccompanied (undocumented) children (UAC's) that are mostly classified as Other Than Mexican (OTM) nationals," the report said.

The report also said that the surge has made it difficult for U.S. officials to comply with the Flores versus Reno Settlement Agreement, which requires that unaccompanied child immigrants be placed in the custody of an organization that can care for the children, rather than holding them in detention centers.

The number of children in the Harlingen Field Office geographical area has seen an increase of 367.6 percent since fiscal year 2011, according to the report.

Over the past two weeks, U.S. officials have processed more than 500 of the Central American children and their parents through El Paso. Many of the families, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, stayed temporarily at the Annunciation House shelter.

Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, said the shelter has assisted with 540 Central American immigrants that the government flew to El Paso, and with another 60 to 80 that were apprehended by the Border Patrol's El Paso sector.

The families left by bus and train to other places in the U.S. to wait for their immigration hearings.

El Paso Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said border agents had apprehended 1,540 undocumented immigrants who were not from Mexico from Oct. 1 to May.

They represent about 20 percent of the Border Patrol's overall apprehensions, Mosier said, who late Friday was unable to provide a more detailed breakdown on the countries of origin.

Another group of about 300 Central American families is expected to be lodged temporarily in Anthony, New Mexico, according to Catholic Charities.

President Barak Obama called the surge of child immigrants "an urgent humanitarian issue."

Vice President Joe Biden led a summit with Central American leaders on Friday (June 20) in Guatemala to discuss how the countries involved in the surge can help stem the flow of immigrants.

White House officials said Obama also was in touch with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto regarding the issue, since the immigrants are traveling through Mexico unimpeded on their way to the U.S. border.

Also this week, the White House announced that it planned to open dozens of new detention centers to house the Central American immigrant families, prompting the ACLU of Texas and other advocacy groups to protest.

Garcia said most of the immigrants have said they are fleeing violence and poverty in their countries, and many of them are seeking political asylum.

Texas state officials have responded to the influx of immigrants by directing a "surge" of state law enforcement to the border. The Texas Department of Public Safety was tasked to plan and execute the operation.

The Border Trade Alliance sent Gov. Rick Perry a letter asking that the operation be planned in a way that does not hurt legitimate travel and trade. Rolando Pablos, CEO of the BorderPlex Alliance in El Paso, was among those who signed the letter.

The June 20 letter said "we are concerned that law enforcement surge you envision has the potential to cause a significant disruption to legitimate border region commerce and disrupt productive trade with Mexico.